Lucky!
by Artemis Obscure
Summary: It all started when Howl was looking for a lucky charm. Then he managed to rope Sophie in to help... [forgive me for unnecessary WAFF and FLUFF which might make people want to shoot me...]


Lucky!

by Artemis Obscure

Disclaimer: All characters here were created by the magnificent Diana Wynne Jones. I don't own anything of this story, nor am I making any money out of it. So, I'm not infringing and copyright acts. The only thing which might actually belong to me is the plot and the fluff stuffed in this.

A/n: Written within thirty minutes of furious pounding on my laptop in various sprawling positions. God bless technology. Typing on the bed has never been this comfortable. Forgive me for this fic is unbetaed, and in my current state, i'm too lazy to check through it.

* * *

It was odd, really.

If anything, Sophie had the following philosophy in life: things couldn't get any odder than they already were. It especially helped her to deal with one odd happening after another in her life, and helped her keep things relatively normal. After being turned into a ninety year old crone and then working as a cleaner in home of a wizard, who purportedly ate the hearts of younger girls and then finally saving that said wizard from a vengeful witch and being changed back to the young girl she was again, everything was blissfully ordinary and normal once more.

Or rather, as normal as things could get after all that happening.

It had been a blissful day. Sophie had headed off to Kingsbury with Fanny and Lettie for a day out of shopping. (Martha couldn't take a day off from Cesari's to come along. Besides, she implied that she'd rather be in Market Chipping with Michael rather than go shopping) She had arrived back at the moving castle with a few new dresses, hoping that no one would be home so that she could try them on and make extra flattering alterations. She'd rather shrivel up like a raisin, rather than let Howl know that she wanted to look pretty for him.

But, she thought, going back to the subject on hand, nothing was odder than watching the Royal Wizard Pendragon, in mid-afternoon, on all fours in the clover patch, desperately going through each tiny plant as if his life depended on it.

"Howl," she began tentatively. "What are you doing?"

Howl glance up at the sound of her voice. His bottle green eyes sparkled with sudden hope and he gave a sunny smile at the sight of her. "There you are, Sophie!" he declared triumphantly. "I'd thought you'd never get back! Come and help me!" With that, he turned back to his job of worrying the clover patch.

"Help you?" Sophie asked. She didn't understand the sudden thumping of her heart, although she didn't find it too unpleasant. She squinted at the clover patch. "Did you loose something?"

"And if I did, it would probably mean passing out on the chance of a lifetime," he moaned, his gaze not leaving the clover. "And all that I ask for you is to just help me to look for it, instead of clutching on to those packages."

Sophie snorted. "Typical Howl reaction," she remarked to nothing in particular. "Slithering out again." However, that didn't stop her from joining him on her hands and knees in the clover patch. "So, what are you looking for?"

"A four leaf clover," Howl replied promptly. "It'll bring me lots of good luck," he quickly interjected, upon seeing the look on Sophie's face. It was a face that said _All this fuss for a little plant?_ "I did a divination spell today, and all signs indicated that I would find a lucky charm."

"All this fuss for a little plant?" she asked incredulously.

"A lucky little plant," he defended. "And, Mrs. Nose," he continued before she could get another word in. "Before you go on and ask me to get something easier like a rabbit's foot or a horseshoe, the portents indicated that my lucky charm would be directly outside the castle. And you notice," he stopped and waved his hand expansively at the grounds. "There are no rabbits whose feet I can take or horses whose horseshoes I can steal. So it all logically pointed to the four leaf clover. And there happened to be a generous patch of it here."

She shook her head and sighed. Howl's logic was seamless. From the past few magic lessons that she had taken so far, she knew that amongst all the witchcraft, divination was the most tricky and difficult. It was easy to get a prediction wrong, as portents could be both ambiguous. It was usually up to the diviner to interpret the signals and signs. And although Howl was incredibly slapdash when it came to spells, his divinations were usually correct, as he used deductions after getting the signals.

Besides, knowing Howl, he wouldn't rest till he had found that clover. And if he didn't find it, who knew what might happen, it ranged from throwing a tantrum to green slime. Either that, or Howl would be moaning and groaning the whole night about how unlucky he was to have missed that clover. Sophie was sure something like that was bound to happen, and she didn't want to stick around for the results.

After all, she had new dresses waiting for her to get back too. The faster she helped him find that clover, the faster she could get back to the castle and try them on. Sophie tackled the next plant with grim vigor.

It seemed like an everlasting job, searching for the four petal clover. It was like searching for a needle in a haystack. A very small, green needle in a large, green haystack. All of the clover looked alike, and all of them had three little leaves. The sun was sending uncomfortable prickles on her scalp and her fingers felt gummy from handling clover.

Sophie would have thrown in the towel, if it wasn't for the strange thumping of her heart. It sounded as if it was doing a tap dance in her chest. The fact that Howl was very close to her, seemed to nail her to her position. And it was probably by accident, but Howl's hand had brushed against hers quite often. It sent slight electric whizzes through her spine, and blood rushing to her face. The scent of hyacinths mixed with the heady clover, and Sophie had the sudden vague idea that heaven smelt like that. She was sure that the thumping of her heart would give her away to Howl.

Howl, however, was too busy searching for his clover, to notice the effect he was having on Sophie. He didn't even apologize when his hand touched hers.

"So, as I was saying, I gave Michael the rest of the day off. I shouldn't have done that, actually. I could use his help now," he said when he suddenly paused and looked at Sophie. "Are you alright, Sophie?" he asked, his long, angular face creased with concern. "You look rather red."

With a sudden swift movement, he raised his hand and placed it on her forehead. "I hope you haven't gotten sunstroke or anything," he continued.

More whizzes shot up her spine at his touch. His eyes were too green, she couldn't help thinking. It was like looking through a glass bottle where she couldn't see what laid past. The tap dance in her chest intensified. She tried to dismiss it, by reminding herself that Howl used the contents of the packet of eyes to make them look better. It didn't work.

"I'm fine," she said, in what she hoped was a dismissive tone. Hoping to be firm, she took his hand off her forehead. His gaze shifted to her ear, instead.

"Sophie, you have something in your hair." He leaned down and touched the side of her head.

And the next thing she knew, he had bend down and captured her lips in his.

If he had done something like that when she was still a ninety year old crone, Sophie was sure that she would have a heart attack. Her first impulse to jerk her head away was thwarted as Howl had a gentle, but firm hold of her head. Howl's lips on hers were sweet as clover honey and as gentle as a summer's breeze.

She was still feeling decidedly light headed when he straightened and flourished something triumphantly.

"Look! I found it!" It was small and green. "It got caught in your hair just now."

"Um," Sophie said intelligently. She blinked twice to clear the fogginess in her brain. "Found what?"

"The four leaf clover, of course!"

The fog in her head was dissipating. Sophie screwed her eyes and looked at the clover. It looked like it had four leaves, but, on closer examination…

"Howl," she said. "It has only three leaves."

"Nonsense, he said grandly. "It most definitely has four—" he paused and looked at the clover carefully. It was hard for her not to laugh at the crestfallen look on his face when he realized that the clover had only three leaves.

"Maybe you might want to continue looking for it," she suggested.

Howl seemed to have recovered from his crestfallenness. "I might not have to," he said. "Sophie, my lucky charm might not be a clover. It might be you."

Sophie wondered if Howl's kiss had affected her hearing. "I don't think," she began, but Howl didn't let her continue.

"The portents said that it would be directly out of the castle. And we're directly out of the castle. Sophie, the portents were pointing to _you_." He stood up and dusted his hands. "So I've found it. And don't tell me otherwise." This was because she had opened her mouth to dismiss that. There was a cheeky twinkle in his eye that suggested that were she to say anything; he was going to kiss her again, this time just to shut her up.

"No more garbage about you being the eldest. You're the luckiest person of all. Let's leave it at that." He held out his hand towards her. "We should be getting back to the castle now."

She nodded and took his hand. Howl pulled her to her feet and they headed towards the castle. They walked hand in hand in silence for a while, until Howl spoke.

"Sophie, are you not going to speak to me because I kissed you?" He tried to sound casual, but it came out in an almost plaintive tone. She noticed that the tips of his ears had turned pink.

"Of course not." Her voice came out in a squeak. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Of course not. Why should I be?"

"Because," he began with deliberate slowness. "I'm going to kiss you again."

And he did.

This time, Sophie really felt like the luckiest girl around. Who needed things like four leaved clovers and horseshoes when there was Howl around?

* * *

Michael returned to the moving castle much later than he had expected to. Martha had gone back for the night, and Fanny had invited him to stay for dinner. One thing had led to another, and he had spent a good part of the night lying on the top of the Smith's roof, looking at the stars with her. It wasn't till Fanny came up to the roof with a broom before he realized how late it was.

He crept into the castle, feeling stupid for creeping around and feeling guilty. He had never stayed out so late at night before. And there were a whole load of chores to be done before he went to bed, like feeding Calcifer, for instance. And as for Howl…

Upon remembering Howl, Michael straightened up. Why on earth should he feel guilty? After all, it was Howl who had practically thrown him out of the castle right after Sophie left, and told him to take the whole day off. Brimming with more confidence than just now, he strode in confidently…

…only to see Howl sitting by the fireplace with Calcifer. He felt himself suddenly deflate. "H-Howl, what are you doing now? Shouldn't you be, well, asleep?"

"With you prowling about Market Chipping?" he asked. "I couldn't sleep till I was assured you were back here safely, and not eating the heart of a young lady."

Michael thought that was quite unfair of him. "You told there was something you had to do, and asked me to spend the whole day in Market Chipping," he said defensively. But Howl grinned, in a way that was rather unlike him, and Michael's indignancy faded into worry.

"Are you alright, Howl?" he asked. "I mean," he stopped upon hearing a queer muffled sound coming from the fireplace. It was the sound a fire made when it was burning on damp log. Calcifer was bent over, and shaking with laughter.

"What's the problem?" he asked crossly.

"You have no idea," Calcifer spluttered. "No idea at all. He had something to do, alright. Oh lord, that was rich."

"What is he going on about?" he asked Howl. "Was it something you did?" This made Calcifer laugh harder than ever.

"Shut up, Calcifer," Howl said, obviously not meaning it. "Just ignore him, Michael. I'm glad you're back. Good night."

"Good night," Michael said. He cast one more cautious look at Calcifer, before heading off to his room. He was at the foot of the stairs when Howl called over to him.

"By the way, Michael. The transfiguration spell you made. It wasn't quite correct. Good night."

That irritated Michael more than ever. For the past few weeks, he had been practiced transfiguring a green pea into a four leaf clover. And he had just succeeded that morning, changing it into one. Well, he had succeeded closely, anyway. One of the clover's leaves was larger than the rest, making it look like a real four leaf clover. He would have been able to correct it, if Howl hadn't almost _chased_ him out of the castle.

He grumbled as he climbed up the stairs. "Sophie was right. He knows that I've gone wrong, but he isn't telling me where the stupid spell went wrong…"

end


End file.
